When he went to join them at the table, it was Iani who spoke first. "So you're Jasper Bloodstone. Nealrith mentioned you."
Iani's speech was slightly slurred, and Jasper-reminded of his father's drunken mumbling-was for a moment repulsed. Then he saw that half of Iani's face did not move as the other half did. A trail of dribble trickled out of one side of his mouth; the man was partially palsied. He waved a spoon at Jasper. "Sit down, sit down. Nealrith said that Taquar was involved."
"Taquar found him," Laisa said by way of explanation as Jasper sat and stabbed at his meal with his spoon. He avoided looking at her because he wasn't sure if he could stop staring. She was wearing a loose robe that clung to different parts of her anatomy with disturbing effect, revealing more than it concealed. She continued, "Our estimable friend kept the boy a prisoner while he taught him the rudiments of watershifting."
"It seems unbelievable! Whatever was he intending?" He addressed Jasper once more: "Nealrith says that you are a stormlord."
"No, he's not," Senya interrupted. She smiled at Jasper.
"No, not yet," he agreed, controlling his wince. "Not really."
"My daughter Lyneth also had the potential to be a stormlord," Iani said.
"So I heard, m'lord."
"Iani, Iani, Iani. Call me Iani. She was beautiful, you know. Lyneth."
Jasper's face flooded with colour, and he changed the subject. "I heard you tell the guard that Qanatend is under attack by Reduners?"
"Yes. I rode for help. I was not in the city when they came; I was inspecting the tunnel. And looking for her, you know. Lyneth. My daughter. I always look for her." Jasper tackled his meal, but all the while he was thinking frantically. Had Nealrith spoken to Iani about Lyneth's bracelet? He thought it unlikely. This was the first time Iani had come to Breccia since Jasper had arrived, and there were more urgent things to consider right now.
"Is-is the attack serious?" he asked. "Or just a quick raid by marauders?"
"Oh, it is serious all right." Iani's tone was grim. "They surround the city. They have our groves and the mother cistern in the hills above. They control our water tunnel. When I left, Moiqa was holding them off at the city walls. I couldn't get back in. I wanted to find Lyneth for her, you know. Can you conceive what it is like for a mother to lose her only child and never to know what happened to her?"
Jasper shook his head and stopped eating. He suddenly had no appetite.
Iani continued, "The city will be all right for a while, with rationing. I sent some men to ask Pediment and Scarcleft for help, and I came here. It will take twice as long to get back with reinforcements. And several days to organise it all first. Supplies. Water. Got to bring their own water. Problem, that. But we can take the mother cistern back first." He swirled the hot honeyed tea in his mug. "Who knows if they can last long enough? The city, I mean."
"What do the Reduners want? Why would they raid a Scarpen city?" Senya asked, her eyes bright with interest.
"You tell me, dear child."
She pouted, apparently not liking to be called a child, and didn't answer, so Iani turned to Jasper. "You tell me."
"I don't know, although I suppose I could make a few guesses."
Iani looked interested, Laisa scornful, Senya disbelieving. "Such as?" Laisa asked.
"Sandmaster Davim of Watergatherer has united most of the dunes but needs to prove to them that he can lead-and that means getting them enough water."
Laisa made an impatient gesture. "Get to the point."
"Davim believed Taquar could supply the Red Quarter, if he wanted, through my cloudshifting powers. At a guess, Taquar told him I am a lot better than I really am and hasn't told him that he doesn't have me any more. So Davim tells Taquar to supply water to make up Granthon's shortfall. When he doesn't get it, he makes good on a threat. 'Fool with me, Taquar, and I'll destroy the Scarpen cities you want to rule one day. Careful, or I'll leave you with nothing.' And so he starts with Qanatend, which is the city closest to the Red Quarter."
"So much wisdom in one so young," Laisa drawled. "Where do you get your ideas from?"
Senya giggled.
Iani paused, his drink halfway to his lips. "Explain yourself," he said at last. "You think Davim and Taquar plotted treason together?"
"I saw them together. Taquar had me demonstrate my water skills to Davim."
Iani almost dropped his drink. "Do you mean to tell me you think Moiqa's city is under siege simply because this Reduner wants to teach Taquar a lesson?"
"That, and maybe it's a way for the Reduners to get more water, at least for as long as water flows into the mother cistern. They have the pedes necessary to transport it. I would say they are already doing their best to steal it from Qanatend."
Iani looked aghast. "This fellow, Davim-he must believe that Granthon won't send rain to the Red Quarter's waterholes now that he has raided a Scarpen city. So he would be entirely dependent on Taquar, whom you say he does not trust? He would not be so foolish, surely! He must have some other plan, something we are not aware of."
"He's gambling," replied Jasper.
"That's sandcrazy!" said Iani.
"No, because he doesn't think he can lose. If Taquar doesn't start supplying the water Davim needs, then he will simply attack more Scarpen cities until he does. Of course, he doesn't know Taquar doesn't have me any more. Each time he gains a city, he seizes more water. He thinks the Reduner tribes will be increasingly angry with the Scarpen, and happier with him."
"You are contradicting yourself," Laisa said. "You said they are already united behind him."
"Yes, most of the dune tribes are," Jasper agreed, "but at the moment he has their support only because they fear his power. He has been threatening them, and most have succumbed. But it's hard to win a battle with reluctant warriors. He needs the sandmasters of the other dunes to support him willingly. And one way to do that is to provide them with a common enemy. Who better than the people who stopped sending them water? He would then have a huge force of mounted tribesmen with ziggers. Enough to conquer the whole of the Quartern, if he wanted."
"And leave their families at home without water," Iani pointed out.
"Not exactly. There would still be water in most of the Reduner waterholes for a while. And he would be sending water back to them all the time."
Laisa looked at him, frowning. Senya more rudely asked, "How can you possibly know that stuff? You're just a Gibberman who never went to the academy."
Jasper flushed but continued doggedly, "I don't know anything. Rainlord Iani just asked my opinion, and I gave it. And I am hardly untutored. Cloudmaster Granthon tells me things he thinks I ought to know and gives me texts to read. So does Highlord Nealrith. I study with Rainlord Ryka. And I had nothing else to do but read when I was imprisoned. I even corresponded with Scarcleft teachers. Being caged gives you a lot of time to read and learn."
Laisa gave him a hard stare. "Well," she said, "who would have thought you would have all the answers. How do you explain the limited nature of this plan of Davim's? He must realise that sooner or later he will run out of water to steal."
"Once he has sufficient water stored in Reduner water holes to last a couple of years, he will rid himself of every rainlord in the Quartern, including Taquar, Granthon and me. He hates rainlords and stormlords. Random rain will then return. The Red Quarter will survive; we won't."
"Why can they be powerful in a time of random rain and we can't?" Senya asked.
It was her mother who answered. "They have pedes by the hundred. They are hunters. Their sandmasters and tribemasters and shamans are water sensitives who can find desert waterholes filled by random rain. We rainlords and reeves could, too, I suppose, but all of us in the Scarpen and the Gibber are linked too irrevocably to our groves and our cities and settles to prosper without them."